The Famished
by The Light's Refrain
Summary: The Striaton Triplets have their whole future ahead of them...a future quickly being devoured by darkness. Can they break away with their lives, much less their minds? COMPLETE!
1. A Taste of Darkness

_Hello! Welcome to my newest story! It will be sunshine and rainbows and Butterfree!_

_...Actually, this is probably the evilest thing I have ever written. People that know some of my other stuff will know this is no light threat. You have been warned. It's not too bad this chapter though..._

_Anyway, I already know where this story is going because the whole thing has already been written out. It will be 3 chapters. So, no waiting for months on end for updates XD. In fact I plan to have everything up by the end of July._

_Thank you to all my betas for making this chapter even more awesome! Their names are listed on my profile. _

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I'd have the Striaton Triplets fixing me gourmet meals all the time XP.**

"_Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. We must find each other." -Mother Teresa_

_**The Famished**_

_**Chapter 1: A Taste of Darkness**_

"Welcome to the Striaton City Pokémon Gym! I'm Chili!" proclaimed the triplet with red hair and red eyes to yet another challenging Trainer. "I light things up with Fire-type Pokémon! Ta-da! The Fire-type scorcher Chili - that's me - will be your opponent!" He grinned broadly, pumping his fist into the air. "Yeeeeeooow! Time to play with fire! I'm the strongest of us brothers!"

**IIIIII**

Actually, Chili wasn't much of a Fire-type person. Sure, he liked them alright, but he was only a Fire-type Trainer for the sake of the Grass-Fire-Water dynamic of their Gym. Same with Water-type Trainer Cress, who would have preferred to use Psychic-type Pokémon instead. Really, only Grass-type Trainer Cilan chose his specialty based on a type he favored…But Chili _did_ have the most temper and energy of the three, so Fire-type he was. And he made sure to say plenty of fiery things, because then no one could doubt his allegiance to fire, right?

And it wasn't fair to say he was the strongest of the brothers either, even if he was often the one who dealt with bullies and other threats when they were little. All of them were equally matched as Pokémon Trainers, and they knew it. The whole reason they went with this whole Grass-Fire-Water gimmick was so they could all be Gym Leaders together. It was the same motive for why they all dyed their hair to match their chosen types, and wore colored contacts to match said dyed hair (they were all light brunettes naturally, with brown-colored eyes). They were all they had, ever since they were kids, so it would treachery to leave a brother out in the cold.

But it was okay. It was all for show, for the entertainment of their challengers. The Striaton Triplets (though they weren't even from Striaton City), knew that appearances made all the difference when performing an act. Even the other Gym Leaders, who snubbed them because they were the newest Gym, had to admit they were enjoyable.

But no one else's opinion mattered. Others couldn't be trusted. The other Gym Leaders were just aiming for higher Gym ranks, or trying to ascend into the Pokémon League. Just a couple of months ago Team Plasma had preached for Pokémon rights, yet had stolen and enslaved many to serve their own nefarious purposes. Even that nice lady in Lostlorn Forest-who gave Cilan herbs-turned out to be a Zoroark, the dark Pokémon of illusions (though that _did_ explain how they always managed to get lost in there…).

In the end, all they needed were each other.

**IIIIII**

"Chili! Have you seen my hairbrush?" shouted Cress, the blue-haired waiter looking under one of the dining room tables. Their Gym didn't just look like a restaurant - it _was_ a restaurant, and their home. During the day it served as a Pokémon Gym, and in the evenings the tables were brought out so the brothers could attend hungrier patrons instead.

"Oh wheeeeeeere is my hairbrush?" Chili sang with a smile, as he continued to scrub the windows. Everything was now closed, and it was cleaning time. It seemed like it was always cleaning time. "Oh wheeeeeeeere is my hairbrush? Oh where oh where oh where oh where oh where oh wheeee-"

"Shut up Larry," Cress growled, throwing his notepad and whacking the back of Chili's head. "I'm being earnest. Have you seen it? I couldn't find it anywhere in premise of my room…"

Chili sighed as he bent down to pick up Cress's notebook. "Why would I know where your damn hairbrush is? I don't groom myself twenty times a day like you do." It felt so nice to use some profanity, after a long day of having to censor himself around Trainers and customers. He tossed the notepad back.

"Ah, that's right, _you_ prefer to leave in your hair gel for a week," Cress retorted coolly, catching it. "I'm a fool for asking you, for I highly doubt you even know where _your_ hairbrush is, much less mine."

Chili rolled his eyes as he turned back to cleaning the windows. "It's a lot less hassle that way."

Cress sighed dramatically. "You have no class, my brother."

"And neither do you, 'cause we're all triplets, remember?" Chili replied with a snarky grin.

Cress let out a dignified huff, before leaving the room in his ongoing quest for his hairbrush.

Chili went to get a fresh towel from a nearby table. Cress always had to be such a self-absorbed diva about everything. Chili had one of his headaches again, and wasn't really in the mood for his blue-haired brother's drama.

Still, that was nothing new, nor was their banter. Like everything else, their arguments were mostly performances for others, or just good-hearted teasing. The girls seemed to like watching disagreements between them for some reason. Absently Chili wondered if Cress was actually practicing a planned skit with him, and forgot to tell him about it earlier. It was hard to tell sometimes.

As Chili worked on cleaning the windows, his milder brother Cilan came in with a broom. "Well, uh, pretty good day, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." They had gotten a good number of challengers today, and they had beaten them all and collected the prize money. Afterward, the restaurant had gotten a surprising amount of business for a Thursday evening. Today had been a very profitable day for both of their enterprises. "If this keeps up, we'll be rich in no time!"

"That…would be nice," said Cilan, as the green-haired brother began to sweep. "So…I'm hungry. What should we have for dinner?"

"Oh right," said Chili, as he finished up the windows and carelessly dumped the now-dirty towel into the pile of cleaning rags. "I'm not sure, but I fancy…well, something fancy, since we had such a good day and all. Crawdaunt tail, maybe?"

"Ah, with, uh, maybe some Finneon on the side?" Cilan suggested, already getting excited. "With, um, some butter and Bayleef seasoning?"

"Yeah! And we could have some roasted Pidgeot with that too!" Chili went on, already vividly imagining their upcoming meal. "Of course that will take a while to cook-"

Just then Cress walked, or rather stomped, back in, looking cross.

Cilan frowned. "Something wrong?"

"You ever find that hairbrush?" asked Chili.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Cress replied, holding up the silver-and-blue hairbrush in question. "In _your_ room, Chili."

"Huh?" replied Chili, staring at the hairbrush in question. "But I never touched it!"

"Then what was it doing in _your_ room?" asked Cress.

"I don't know!" protested Chili. "What would I want with some girly brush like that, anyway? My comb does just fine."

Cress let out an aggravated groan. "Look, Chili, I just want you to be truthful about this. If you indeed desired for your hair to look as wonderful as mine-"

"I didn't take it!" Chili retorted. "I'm not trying to look like a damn princess like you!"

"Enough," said Cilan, stepping between them. "You're just irritated because you're both hungry. The hairbrush…probably just got put into the wrong room by one of the staff, or, um, maybe one of our Pokémon dragged it in there. It's…uh, not that big of a deal."

"No one besides us should be going into our rooms," Cress mumbled, but both he and Chili visibly relaxed. Cilan was always the calmest and most logical of the three, and so he was best at settling little disputes like this.

More importantly, all three of them were famished, and soon continued discussing dinner plans instead. Most people dreaded getting fat, but Chili actually looked forward to being the iconic plump cook. Who would trust a skinny cook, anyway? He suspected Cilan felt the same way, as he shook his head at all the latest diet fads. And Cress…well, Cress probably wanted to stay skinny, but they were triplets and he ate just as much as he and Cilan did, so…

At least they all agreed that it was way better than Lentimas Town, with all its red desert dust and volcano soot making everything taste like grime. That is, when they had anything to eat at all. But nobody needed to know about that.

**IIIIII**

But perhaps Cress's grudge didn't end there, as Chili had hoped. For the next day Chili couldn't find either his comb or his hair gel. His room wasn't _that_ messy, though it was due for a cleaning. Working on a hunch, Chili went to Cress's room, which was as immaculate as ever. Sure enough, there was his comb, right next to Cress's hairbrush. It was Cilan, however, who finally located the hair gel with the cleaning supplies.

Chili confronted Cress on this. He denied everything, of course, but Cress always denied such things, so Chili knew better. So while Cress was out on errands, Chili took his cufflinks and hid them behind the restaurant TV. Cress spent a good hour looking for them before Chili eventually pointed out their location. Cress skulked away, fuming. Then the next day Chili's bowtie was gone…and so were all his shirts ("Chili, are you chilly?" Cress taunted, as Chili proceeded to stomp around bare-chested in search of his tops. This time it was Cress's turn to get hit with a thrown notepad.)

This went on for about a week. The locations kept getting stranger: Chili found his notepad in the freezer, while Cress found a pair of his dress pants in a sack of flour. Cress must have been hiding some of it himself, because there were still some disappearances Chili wasn't responsible for. He doubted Cilan was in on it either. One time Cilan found Chili's shoes hanging from meat hooks, and he demanded the nonsense to stop. Or to at least be more sanitary.

But maybe Chili was wrong again - For one day both he and Cress were trying to find their bottles of hair dye, and found them alongside Cilan's own bath supplies. So, while Cilan was in the shower, they took all his clothes and hid them under their beds. Then they interrogated their green-haired brother, who was clad only in a towel and supremely embarrassed about it. He denied any involvement, until Cress's handheld mirror was found on the top of his shelf. Then he confessed that, yes, he had a hand in the prank war.

"Didn't want to miss out on the fun," he said with a Mareepish smile.

They forgave him, but they didn't mention how they had mixed some of their own hair dye in his hair dye bottle. Cilan's hair was muddy brown for a month.

That should have ended things, but the triplets would still find their possessions in odd places. And now they were waking up to rearranged rooms too. It wouldn't be anything big - a poster moved somewhere else, books ordered from Z to A instead of A to Z, that kind of thing. But it annoyed them, and they would try to stay up to catch their siblings doing it.

This wasn't always so hard for Chili to do, for he was a bit of an insomniac lately. He would either have trouble going to sleep, or he would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, for seemingly no reason. He had strange dreams he could never quite remember, something about a woods, fire, and some monster coming to get him. Sometimes his headaches kept him up too, if they were bad enough. They came suddenly and sharply, and regular painkillers didn't seem to help. He did his best to hide them though, since he didn't want to worry his brothers.

Chili was just beginning to get one of those headaches again as he worked on cleaning the kitchen. It had been another busy night, and there were a lot of dishes to do. Chili was debating whether or not to wait and finish everything tomorrow when Cress walked in, carrying even more tableware.

"Still not done?" asked Cress, smiling.

"Of course not. You left halfway through," Chili growled. Cress had complained of feeling tired and had asked if he could rest for a few minutes. He never came back from his break, and suddenly the restaurant was slammed. "Feeling better now that all the hard work's done?"

"Yes, but I feel horrendous about leaving the two of you out there by yourselves," Cress replied, walking over to Chili. "For that I apologize."

At this Chili raised an eyebrow. Since when did Cress apologize for anything?

Cress set down the dishes he was carrying with a _clack_, then continued to gaze at them. "Which is your favorite silverware, brother?"

Chili frowned. "Favorite silverware? I dunno, never really thought about it."

"Pick one," said Cress.

"Uh…The spoon, I guess. 'Cause you can't eat ice cream with a fork or a knife," Chili replied, picking one up before tossing it into the sinkwater. "But really there's no best one. Just depends on what you're eating."

"I…suppose that's true," Cress replied, still not looking at Chili. "But…"

"But what?"

Deftly Cress snatched something off one of the plates, and thrust it forward in one smooth motion. Chili froze as he gaped at the knife barely two inches from his head, its silver blade embedded into the wall. He stiffly turned to look at his brother, who was still holding the base of the knife. The cold grin on his face shook him more than the knife next to his head.

"I prefer this one myself," said Cress, yanking out the knife and casually dropping it into the sink.

"…W-What the hell, Cress?" Chili snapped, partly in anger, partly to cover up his fear. That look on Cress's face right after he had stabbed the wall…He had _never_ seen that kind of look before. "What was _that_ about?"

"Oh, it was about nothing," Cress replied, seeming almost bored. "Just wanted…to see you react, that is all."

"That's all?" Chili exclaimed. "You could've killed me! And now we have a new hole in the wall! And you just did that because you were, what, _bored_?"

Cress smiled again. "Exactly."

Chili felt chills crawl down his back. "…Seriously, what's with you?"

"As I said, it is nothing," Cress replied, starting to leave. He paused, turning back to Chili. "Nothing…that you will not realize yourself, sooner or later."

His blue-haired brother was gone before Chili could ask him anything more, leaving the red-haired triplet to puzzle over the disturbing encounter while cleaning dishes.

**IIIIII**

Chili reported the knife incident to Cilan the next morning, and they both confronted Cress on the matter. Cress renounced all involvement, of course. Cilan gave him reasonable doubt despite Chili's protests. Chili knew his brother when he saw him! But Cilan quietly swept the matter under the rug, and soon they were too swamped with Trainers to argue about it further.

Life went on. Business for their restaurant went up and down. Gym business always remained almost overwhelmingly high. They could have made more money if they only worked as Gym Leaders, but the restaurant was their passion. In fact, they were only Gym Leaders to support the restaurant.

Possessions still got lost and then found in the oddest of places, like buried in the Gym Badge box, or hanging off of chandeliers. Their rooms got mysteriously arranged almost daily. But aside from the unusually long prank war, all was normal.

Except for one thing. Chili was busy cleaning the Pokémon battle stadium (Pokémon battles, even low-level ones, left scuffs and scratches everywhere) when he heard a terrified yelp from Cilan. Dropping his broom, Chili rushed to the scene. He found Cilan, shaken, near Cress's room.

"T-There was an in-intruder!" Cilan sputtered, holding his notepad close to his chest. "I-I was going to C-Cress's room to drop something off when I found _h-him_ in there…"

Chili whirled his head to look into Cress's room, but he saw no one there. He did, however, see an open window, its curtains billowing in the wind.

"H-He's gone now…" Cilan confirmed. "I-I hope he didn't take anything…"

"Probably did," growled Chili with a grimace. "What'd the guy look like?"

"Ah! Um…Black outfit…" Cilan began. "Uh, pale skin…white hair…black eyes…"

"Did you get a good look at his face?" asked Chili.

"No…" replied Cilan. "It was partly covered by…uh, one of those fabric mask things that cover your nose and mouth…"

"You mean a balaclava?" Chili asked.

"Yes! One of those!"

_So we just got robbed by a ninja_? thought Chili incredulously. That's what it sounded like to him. "We'd better report this to the cops. Where's Cress?"

"H-He went out to get groceries earlier," said Cilan. "But, ah, right! Cops…I'll call the cops, you call Cress." He fumbled with the Xtransceiver on his wrist.

It didn't take long for the cops to arrive - perhaps they were spurred by Cilan's nervously-scrambled speech during the call. It _did_ take Chili awhile to get in touch with Cress: first he wouldn't answer his calls, and then Chili couldn't find him at the grocery store. Chili was starting to get anxious when he finally found Cress strolling along the street, groceries in hand. He claimed that he had been at the grocery store the whole time, and that Chili's people-finding skills were horrible. He hadn't answered the calls because he had his Xtransceiver off to avoid some persistent fangirls of his.

Cress was alarmed when he heard about the bizarre intruder, and then became irate when he learned the stranger had the nerve to raid _his_ room. As soon as the police were done collecting evidence and investigating, Cress barged in to personally inspect all his possessions. Surprisingly, nothing was missing, besides a book they later found in one of the ovens. Chili and Cilan also checked their rooms, and got the same results. All their Pokémon were still there too.

"Guess I must have…startled him, before he could, um, take anything," Cilan concluded, as the three of them had their dinner together. Tonight it was Sawsbuck steak with fried Unfezant and Oddish salad, a relatively simple dinner for them. Cilan was working on peeling apart a wing.

"Or he's the guy who keeps messing with our stuff," Chili joked, as he gobbled down the venison. He wasn't too concerned about manners when it was a private dinner with his brothers. No need for appearances here.

Cress was more serious as he munched on his salad. "The thief's description…I seem to recall it from somewhere…Hmm…"

"You've heard of a robber ninja guy?" asked Chili.

"Ninja…" Cress mumbled, before he snapped his fingers. "Oh! Could it have been…a member of the Shadow Triad?"

Both Chili and Cilan froze. The Shadow Triad were among the most notorious of the now-defunct Team Plasma. People claimed they had almost supernatural power and speed, and dressed much like ninjas. They were suspects in many crimes, such as unsolved thefts, sabotages, even murders of both Pokémon and people. But there was no proof, and no one knew who they really were anyway. All the Gym Leaders except the Striaton Trio had encountered them at least once before, at N's Castle…the battle they failed to reach in time, which caused the other Gym Leaders to look down on them even more…

"…You serious?" asked Chili in half-disbelief. Why would the Shadow Triad be troubling _them_? He had heard rumors of attacks on the other Gym Leaders and their Pokémon, but the three of them hadn't been involved in any of the Team Plasma incidents like the others had been. They mostly kept to themselves, something else that seemed to irritate the other close-tied Gym Leaders.

"I am absolutely serious," said Cress, putting down his silverware. "I may have been very fortunate today, if one of the Shadows was after me…But if that was the case, why simply flee when Cilan appeared? No offense brother, but I'm sure he easily could have…_overcome_ you if he wanted to."

Cilan stiffened, as he seemed to fully grasp what Cress meant. "Y-Yes, it is…quite lucky, but strange…"

"C'mon, we don't even know for sure that it was the Shadow Triad," countered Chili. Cilan had finally been relaxing, and he didn't want his other brother scaring him with a wild hypothesis.

"We can't say that it _wasn't_ one of them," pointed out Cress. "Regardless, we need to heighten security. We don't need our unwanted guest coming back, or bringing equally unwanted friends with him."

Both Chili and Cilan nodded in agreement. A breach like this was inexcusable. If there was one place they should be safe, it was their home. And this would look very bad to both Trainers and restaurant customers alike.

Of course, they couldn't let his distasteful subject ruin their appetite either. They postponed further discussions of intruders and security until they had finished their dinner.

**IIIIII**

The Striaton Trio upped their safety measures, but in an elegant manner. The chain-link fence around the back was mostly hidden by newly-planted shrubbery. The bars on the windows were painted and decorated to look like blooming vines. The cameras (which were still being shipped) would be hidden in the lights and in the walls. They didn't want their customers to feel like they were going into a prison.

They didn't hire security guards, partially for money reasons, and partially because more people only caused more possible security issues. They only hired people they really needed. Right now they had an extra waiter and waitress that doubled as Gym Trainers, and even they were used sparingly.

_Don't depend on other people,_ their mother always said. _In the end, you have to rely on yourselves, and each other. _

But mostly, things stayed the same. The prank war raged on. One day, Chili found his red-colored eye contacts inside a sandwich Cilan made for him. He only figured that out when he felt one of the soft plastic gels on his tongue. Chili still had his migraines too, but since he and his brothers were busier than ever it didn't surprise him.

What did surprise Chili was when Cilan went to bed early one evening, not even finishing his dinner- a sure sign something was up. The triplets never wasted anything, especially food. That night was no exception, as the remaining two brothers split the remains of Cilan's food between them.

Chili was usually the first one to get up in the morning. That morning, however, he found his green-haired brother up before him, already cheerfully setting the silverware at the tables. Cress was still getting his beauty sleep, which was not unusual: the blue-haired brother often got up last.

"Ah, hello brother!" Cilan said with a big smile. "Today is a good day, isn't it?"

Chili glanced out the window. It was a nice sunny day, at least. "Yep. Looks like somebody's feeling better, too."

"Yes," Cilan chirped back. "I feel much better now."

Chili was about to ask why Cilan was in such a good mood, when he heard something whimpering nearby. He looked around, but he couldn't find the source of the noise.

Cilan noticed the sound too, and looked under the table he was standing by. A moment later he stood back up, a small fluffy dog Pokémon in his arms. "Oh, everything's fine, little one."

The tiny Lillipup, quivering in Cilan's arms, seemed to disagree. It continued to whine.

"Hey, I don't recognize that one. Is he new?" asked Chili, leaning closer to get a better look at the Lillipup. They kept a lot of Pokémon around for their Gym battles, since it didn't take long for a continuously trained Pokémon to get too strong for Gym use.

This Lillipup, which had a dark splotch on its muzzle, only whined louder.

"He is a new one," Cilan answered, beaming. "I got him from another Trainer."

"So you traded for him," said Chili. Their extra Pokémon who had grown too strong were often traded or sold to other Trainers. They could get all the new Pokémon they wanted from the nearby Pokémon Daycare.

Cilan shook his head. "I took it."

"Took it?" Chili asked. "From where?"

"I lured the Lillipup away with some food while the Trainer wasn't looking, and then I took it," explained Cilan, still smiling.

Chili gaped at his green-haired brother, barely able to believe what he had just heard. He glanced around in search of potential eavesdroppers before leaning close to his sibling. "_Cilan_! What'd you steal a Lillipup for? You can't be _that_ hungry."

Cilan pouted and held the Lillipup closer. "I saw its Trainer kick it. The Trainer doesn't deserve it."

The Lillipup yipped unhappily.

Chili groaned. "That doesn't mean you can just take it! You want us to lose all of our jobs?"

Cilan glowered at Chili, an expression so alien on his green-haired sibling's face that it unnerved Chili a little. Cilan sighed with open irritation. "Here. Do what you want with it." He carelessly tossed the frightened Lillipup to Chili.

Chili hastily caught the Lillipup. "Hey! Don't just throw it around like that! What's wrong with you, Cilan?"

Cilan was already walking out. "I will get everything else ready."

"_Hey_! Don't ignore me!" Chili shouted. His yelling further scared the Lillipup, who hid its fluffy face in Chili's chest and began whimpering loudly. Looking down at the trembling little creature, Chili decided it was more important to find this Lillipup's Trainer first, and left the Gym. He would deal with Cilan later.

It took a little while, but he eventually found the crying little girl looking for her lost Lillipup. The little girl and the little puppy had a joyously tearful reunion. Chili smiled and went on his way. Though he couldn't help but wonder…Did Cilan lie about his motive, on top of everything else? It didn't seem like a sweet girl like that would ever kick her Pokémon…

Since he was out, Chili decided to pick up some more Badges. The ones they had ordered a few days ago should have been in by now. By the time he had done that and picked up some groceries, it was well into the afternoon.

Cilan seemed like his usual self when Chili got back, politely but shyly greeting the challengers. Cress, on the other hand, was in a foul mood, snapping at the challengers, his losing Pokémon, and even Cilan. Mostly Cilan, actually. It was a long day at the Striaton Gym, and later at the restaurant as well. It was a relief when their work hours were finally over.

"We've got a reputation to keep, you know," Chili reminded Cress later, during a practice match they were having. Cress's Panpour was winning - which wasn't too surprising considering the water monkey's type advantage - but Chili thought his Pansear was doing pretty well too. Still, he hated practice matches - they were so tedious. But training was an essential part to strengthening your Pokémon…

"I'm going to go feed the Pokémon!" Cilan called from somewhere in the kitchen.

"Okay!" Chili called back. No doubt he was preparing the leftovers from the restaurant meals to feed them with. It saddened Chili, when people left excessive amounts of their meals behind. It made him kind of angry too - he and his brothers worked hard to make all that! Obviously these people took their food for granted, and had never known true hunger…But at least the triplets could give it to their Pokémon.

"Water Gun," said Cress.

Panpour squirted a jet of water from its tail, soaking Pansear. The little fire monkey cried out before fainting.

"Hey! I wasn't ready!" protested Chili, as he retrieved his fainted Pokémon.

"A true Trainer is prepared at all times," Cress replied smugly, as he too recalled his Pokémon. He glanced at Cilan as he hurried out with his dishes of home-cooked Pokémon food. He continued gazing at the door even after Cilan was gone, his expression unreadable.

Chili frowned. "Man, what's with you guys today? Both of you have been so _nasty_."

Cress looked back at Chili, his countenance still carefully controlled. "…Did he rake you with a fork too?"

"No, he-" Chili began, before the redhead stopped himself. "…Wait, _what_?"

"…It was in the morning, a little while after you left," Cress began. "I had my sleeves rolled up because I was doing dishes. Cilan came in, and he seemed contented enough, humming some tune to himself and smiling. Then he walked over to where I was and silently observed me for the longest time. I was about to ask him if he needed anything when he just seized a fork and did _this_." He pushed up his sleeve to show his forearm was lightly bandaged. There were four long red marks of dried blood that could be seen through the dressing.

Chili stared at the wound in shock. Stealing, or even throwing, a Pokémon was one thing (there was a time when they caught cute little fluffy Pokémon like Lillipup for eating…) But to just wound Cress like that… "Why'd he do it? Did he say?"

"Said I missed a spot," Cress muttered, pulling his sleeve back down as if afraid of being caught. "Then he just left without saying anything else. He was smiling the whole damn time…" Beneath the obvious anger he was clearly disconcerted by the incident.

"…We need to talk to Cilan," said Chili.

"We do."

As if summoned, Cilan soon came back with empty Pokémon bowls. "Oh, are you…done with your battle?"

Chili and Cress silently glared at their green-haired brother.

Cilan seemed to grow more nervous as the quietness crept on. "Um…So…What are we having for dinner?"

Chili and Cress glanced at each other, before turning to Cilan and folding their arms.

"Well, _we_ will be having Tauros steak with grilled Bellossom and chocolate cheesecake," Cress began. "_You_, on the other hand, will get nothing because you've been a bratty little bastard all day."

The threat of no dinner might have seemed childish and trivial, but when life revolved around food -especially dinner- like the Striaton Triplets' did, it was a very serious punishment. Aside from breakfast and maybe a quick snack after the lunch rush, it was their main source of nourishment.

The threat had its intended effect, for Cilan was suddenly panicky. "W-What for? What did I do?"

Chili let out a growl of frustration. Was Cilan _really_ going to play this innocence game? "Because you stole a Pokémon!"

"And because you did _this_ earlier as well!" Cress added, rolling up his sleeve to show the bandages on his arm..

Cilan look horrified. "W-W-What? I-I didn't do any of that! I-I-I was asleep until noon! I-I still don't feel that well, actually…"

So he _was _going to play the whole _I-couldn't-possibly-have-done-it-because-I'm-too-c ute-and-pure_ act. Chili had seen plenty of it when they were kids, whenever Cilan was trying to get out of trouble, or wanted an extra scrap of food. "Save it. We both saw you up early this morning. We've got a lot of Trainers that can say hi too."

"B-But I'm not lying…"

"We're not Mom. Those Lillipup eyes will get you nowhere," Cress said with a stern look. "Cilan, you will be going hungry tonight."

"B-But-"

"No buts about it," said Chili. "No food for you."

Cilan opened his mouth to further protest, but then he closed it and looked to the floor. Without a word he sadly walked off to his room.

Chili and Cress had to work extra hard on dinner since Cilan wasn't there. Despite the added effort, the dinner didn't taste as good as it usually did.

**IIIIII**

Chili had an exceptionally bad headache a month later. His head was throbbing as soon as he woke up (after another restless night's sleep) and it took unusual willpower just to pull himself out of bed and get dressed. He nearly tripped over a pair of boots in his pained haze…boots? Since when did he own big black boots? Oh yeah, there was that pirate costume he had last year for the restaurant's pirate-themed Halloween party…that must be it. But what were they doing out here? Groggily he tossed them back into the closet and went on his way.

He drifted through his day, battling challenger after challenger on autopilot. The headache slowly escalated into a migraine. Everything was too loud and too bright. By the time it was restaurant hours it felt like a Drilbur was trapped in his head and trying to drill its way out of his skull. He had trouble remembering orders, or which meal went to what table, greatly irritating both his customers and his brothers.

Chili's migraine got so bad that he became nauseous and threw up in the bathroom. His brothers' annoyance shifted to concern, and they told him to go rest. Chili gladly complied. He headed for his room, turned off his lights, and collapsed into bed. Even then it took the redhead a while to go to sleep.

But Chili must have gone to sleep eventually, for he started having a strange dream. Or was it a hallucination from his migraine? Perhaps it was both.

He was still in his room, but there was a shadowy figure a few feet away. It was like darkness in a loosely humanoid form, its shape morphing slightly every other moment. For the longest time it just stood there, as if fascinated by him, or perhaps just bored.

Chili should have been alarmed, but he was too tired and dazed…or asleep, probably. He was vaguely aware of the impossibility of it all. "…Who are you?"

"Who are you?" the shadowy figure echoed, its voice mostly human, yet warped in some way Chili couldn't place.

"I'm Chili," Chili said.

"I'm Chili," parroted the shadowy figure.

"…Are you gonna just repeat everything I say?" asked Chili.

"Are you gonna just repeat everything I say?"

Chili smirked a little. "I'm a big blue Bidoof who's dumber than a Rhyhorn."

"I'm a big blue Bidoof who's dumber than a Rhyhorn."

Chili chuckled a little. This was…kinda fun. "Chili is the most awesome person in the whole wide world."

"Chili is the most awesome person in the whole wide world," said the shadowy figure right next to his bed…Wait, when did it come that close?

Suddenly it pounced upon the bed, crouched on all fours over Chili like a beast. Its red eyes shone like ruby moons, and its wide mouth glittered with sharp white teeth. Darkness wafted off it like vaporous serpents. Chili couldn't move, even though the dark creature wasn't touching him.

"And I will devour, devour, devour," said the shadow, as its darkness spread further and further and engulfed everything. Chili couldn't even cry out as he saw the blackness curl and bind around his body.

"Devour devour _devouuuuuur_-"

**IIIIII**

Chili jerked upright. It was daytime outside, judging by the light seeping through his blinds. He glanced at the digital clock beside his bed - it was just past twelve. He needed to hurry up and get ready. He was surprised that neither Cilan or Cress had gotten him up yet. His head still hurt, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. More importantly, he was hungry. He never did have dinner last night.

As it turned out, it was probably a good thing. The ingredients must have been bad, for both Cilan and Cress were sick as Houndour and constantly rushing to the bathroom. Neither the Gym or the restaurant was going to be open today for obvious reasons, which was why Chili had been allowed to sleep in. Though Chili felt sorry for his miserable siblings, part of him was amused too - this is what they got for hassling him while he was sick yesterday.

But Chili wasn't the type to hold a grudge, especially against his brothers, so he went to the kitchen to fix something simple for them. He was just opening the fridge when Cress came in and slammed the door shut, nearly catching Chili's hand.

"Hey! What're you doing?" Chili snapped.

Cress glared at him. "Why didn't you eat the soup last night?"

"Huh?" Chili asked, confused. He didn't even know they _had_ soup last night.

Rage flashed in Cress's eyes. "Was it because _this_ was in it?" he snarled, throwing something hard onto the floor.

Chili looked down at the flung object. It was a little black bottle. A silhouetted rodent Pokémon, crossed out with a red _X, _was on the label. Rattata poison.

"We found _this_ in the cabinet with the Ducklett soup ingredients this morning," said his other brother Cilan, now emerging from around the corner. His face was grim. "The Ducklett soup that _you_ made last night."

Chili stood there frozen. "…What…What are you saying? I'd _never_ do something like that! I wasn't even _up_ last night!"

"Yes you were!" shouted Cress, pointing at Chili. "We _both_ saw you! We were _both_ with you and talking to you the whole time!"

"Yeah," added Cilan. "You were going on about…how potent spoons could be, or something like that. You…were acting very strange last night…"

Chili tried to think about it. _Did _he get up again later? Now that he thought of it, he could hardly remember anything about yesterday…or even of the day before…

There was an uneasy quiet among the Striaton Trio, as they each seemed to be lost in their own musings.

"Why don't we…check the cameras?" suggested Cilan.

"They're finally up?" asked Chili. He knew Cress had been trying to get them to work properly for a while now. They were primarily concentrated on the Gym floor and dining room area, but others were in the hallways and even on the outside of the building. In fact the only places without cameras were the bathrooms and their bedrooms.

"Yes. They have been functioning for a couple of weeks now," Cress replied, obviously proud of himself for finally accomplishing the installation. "But yes, that is a good idea. Cameras don't lie. Let's watch the footage."

The triplets watched the latest tape. Everything seemed normal at first. Then, to Chili's shock, there _he_ was, greeting his brothers at eight pm, two hours after he went to bed. There he was, cleaning the tables. There he was, cooking soup and talking about spoons. There he was, purposefully taking out a little black bottle and putting a few drops into the soup. Then everyone went to bed, as they always did after dinner.

"Well?" asked Cress, expression cold, as the tape continued to run in the background.

"…_Why_, Chili?" asked Cilan, seeming more hurt than angry.

"I…" Chili croaked, his mouth dry and his head starting to pound again. "I don't know…I don't understand…I don't remember any of this…"

"Are you _still_ making excuses?" Cress snapped.

"I'm _not_! I really don't remember!" Chili shouted back. "I know that's no excuse! Punish me if you want! I know I deserve it! But I'm not lying!"

"Isn't that terribly convenient?" Cress growled, before he noticed something on the TV. "Oh, you got back up, Cilan?"

"Huh? No I…" Cilan began, before he noticed himself walking back into the kitchen. "Um, that's…odd…I don't remember getting up later…"

TV-Cilan didn't seem to be doing anything in particular, just aimlessly wandering around the room. He occasionally moved something, or just stared at an object for a while. Chili thought he looked a bit dazed. Was his brother sleepwalking or something?

"What were you doing?" asked Cress, just as perplexed as Chili.

"Ah…I don't know…" admitted Cilan, apparently just as baffled.

After some more of this mindless shuffling, Cilan took out a Pokeball and sent out a Lillipup. Chili recognized as one of Cilan's favorites, because it had a large white splotch in the middle of its forehead. It turned to Cilan with a confused, drowsy yip.

Cilan kicked it. With a surprised yelp it skittered back, whining. Cilan bent down to retrieve it back into its Pokeball, and then left the kitchen.

"_Cilan_!" Cress hissed, now openly gaping at his green-haired brother.

"Seriously, what's with the Lillipup hate?" asked Chili. First that incident a few weeks back, and now this…But wait…

"I-I-I don't understand!" Cilan sputtered, staring at the screen in shock. "I-I-I didn't do that!…I mean…I don't _remember_ doing that…" He grew quiet. "Cress, that day…with the knife in the wall…What do you remember?"

"Well, it was a normal day…" Cress began, before he paused and folded his arms. "But I did have a terrible migraine that day…and then…"

"Wait, you've been having bad headaches too?" asked Chili.

"You've been having them as well?" asked Cress.

"Yeah!" Chili replied.

"Me too!" piped up Cilan. "I…had a particularly bad one last night, right before I went to bed…"

There was silence.

"Remember anything about the other day yet, Cress?" asked Chili.

A long pause. "…No, I do not. Most of that is quite fuzzy, actually…"

Another pause.

"We…should look at the rest of the tapes," said Cilan.

They watched tapes for the rest of the day. For the most part everything seemed normal, though they did catch one employee stealing tips, which just proved that others couldn't be trusted. But then, whenever the triplets thought nothing was going to happen, something did. Cress flinging Badges against the wall like they were darts (So _that's _why some of the Badges looked so banged up…). Cilan throwing some dishes onto the floor and then cleaning up the fragments (So _that's_ why they were short on cups and plates…). Chili burning a pile of receipts in a pan on the stove (So _that's_ why Chili couldn't find the damn things later…)

And none of the triplets remembered any of it. They couldn't remember a lot in general, actually. But the worst days were when they had the worst headaches. So they narrowed their search to the days when they had the most powerful migraines. And, sure enough, there was Cress rearranging recipes into nonsensical order, there was Cilan hanging shoes from the chandelier, there was Chili tearing up some menus…

"There's…something wrong with us," Cilan whispered, as if afraid of being overheard.

The other two brothers could only nod in agreement, speechless. It gave them all headaches just watching the bizarre footage.

Then, there was _that_ tape, the one from last Friday.

It was the only tape where nothing happened during either Gym or restaurant hours. Clean-up was normal, dinner was normal (Mareep mutton with Lilligant salad), and everyone went to bed. The triplets were about to turn off the TV, tired and overwhelmed by all this disturbing strangeness. Then, the bedroom doors all opened one by one.

And out came three black-clad, white-haired people, each coming from a different room. Chili almost automatically reached out and turned the volume up as the trinity gathered in the middle of the hallway.

"You took too long," spoke one with Cress's voice, though the clipped tone was much different from Cress's usual elegant airs.

"And _you_ need to put on your wig better," said the second one with Chili's voice, pointing to the side of his head. "You've got a strand loose."

"Ah." said the first one, tucking some blue hair back under his white wig. "Can't have that. We must look impeccable to Miss Skyla later this evening, after all."

"We don't need _you_ blowing our cover either," said the one with Chili's voice.

"If you two are done preening and pecking each other like male Unfezant, we need to get going," said the third, this one with Cilan's voice, as he pulled up his balaclava. "Lord Ghetsis is waiting."

The other to nodded, also pulling up their masks. "Of course."

The three of them left the hallway with surprising speed, and were soon off-camera.

The Striaton brothers continued to stare numbly at the TV, even though there was nothing else to see.

"That…was us?" croaked Cilan, eyes still stuck to the screen. "That…couldn't be us…We can't be…"

They each rushed to their rooms, and proceeded to tear them apart as if seeking treasure, even though the truth was the exact opposite. Unfortunately, they found it, tucked away in places they normally wouldn't have bothered looking in.

Black outfits, black balaclavas, white wigs. Black headbands, black contacts, black boots (those damn black boots Chili had tripped over the day before). Kunai, shuriken, knives. Poisons, blow darts, needles. Smoke bombs, actual bombs, piano wire. Pokeballs containing Bisharp and other Pokémon that they would never use.

The triplets showed each other their dark finds. Little was spoken, because the looks in their eyes said it all.

_No…_ thought Chili. _It can't…_

Yet something seemed to hiss in his ear, or perhaps his mind, _Yes._ Yes, _they_ were the feared ones. _They _were the Shadow Triad.

**_IIIIII_**

_So, what do you think so far? Everything make sense? Everyone in character (except for obviously odd spots)? Did you see the end part coming? It's only going to get more chaotic and mindscrewy from here...__By the way, a cookie to those who know where Chili's hairbrush song came from XP._

_On Striaton Trio/Shadow Triad theory - well, it can't really be called a theory anymore b/c it's technically disproven. However, this story uses an alternate theory that works around that. And I find the whole Striaton Trio/Shadow Triad theory far too fun not to use despite the outdatedness - because let's face it, Ash will never kiss Misty, or any other girl, either. Or grow older than ten. Yet there are lots of fanfics of both, because that's what people want to write about...Part of the fun of fanfics in general is writing stuff you know will never happen, yet making it seem like they could..._

_Cya!_


	2. The Benighted Banquet

_Hello again everyone! Welcome to the second chapter! This one needed quite a bit of work, hence why this chapter took a little while. But now it's here and (hopefully) much-improved. Here we go into the bulk of the story. Remember, details are important!  
_

_Oh yeah, since I forgot to mention this before in the first chapter - this story is brought to you by The General Prompt Challenge on the Pokemon Fanfiction Challenges forum! It was a general idea I'd had for a while, but when the prompt word "famished" was thrown in...well, you now see the result. It was supposed to be a oneshot, but it got a bit big for that XD._

_Anyway, enjoy!_

_"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways." -Stephan Vincent Benet_

_**Chapter 2: The Benighted Banquet**_

Cilan suggested that they turn themselves in, but both Chili and Cress heatedly opposed this. All of them had heard of the terrible deeds the Shadow Triad had done, especially the horrid things that had been happening to the other Gym Leaders and their Pokémon. Skyla's Swanna had been found hanging from a tree early Saturday, both wings broken. Burgh woke up to find his paintings blotted out with the blood of his Bug-types. Such horrors were kept hushed up (Unova was unstable enough thanks to Team Plasma's exploits), but the Gym Leaders muttered amongst themselves about the atrocities to which they had been subjected to.

The Striaton Trio complained of the Shadow Triad just like the rest of the Gym Leaders. They had to. If the Gym Leaders, or anyone else, ever found out that they were Shadow Triad…there would be no mercy. They would probably be sentenced to death for their crimes, with no one listening to their cries for help. You couldn't trust or rely on anyone but yourself…Because Pokémon lives mattered more than human ones, even if said humans had no control over themselves at the time. Even if said humans…no, no one could know about this. _No one_. They destroyed the tapes.

They researched split personalities online, but they got few answers. The cause of split personalities was unknown, though many theorized that stress was a chief cause. So that left each of the triplets to their own hypothesis.

Cilan blamed it on what he blamed most things on - nutritional deficiency or imbalance. There had been a case a while back where a group of Pokémon from the Sandile line were acting strangely because they were suffering from a certain vitamin deficiency. They had quickly recovered after they received said vitamin. So the green-haired brother began looking up especially healthy and nourishing recipes for dinner, and had himself and his brothers record whatever they ate from day to day. It was a hassle keeping track of every stray snack or drink, and aside from the fact that supper didn't taste as good, the new diet seemed to have absolutely no effect.

Cress suspected it was an environmental cause. The headaches had started soon after they had moved to Striaton City, so he had researched the area's history. Eventually, he came across a likely story in an old newspaper: More than thirty years ago, a train heading towards Striaton from Nacrene City had been derailed. Rumor had it that the train had been carrying hazardous waste, and the ensuing toxic spill had since been covered up. So, Cress called in some health officials to inspect both the Gym and its grounds (to keep the public calm, this was phrased as merely a precaution for the safety of their customers, and the officials were too well paid to disagree). All the same, nothing was found.

Chili knew his theory was the most outlandish, but this was an extreme situation. There was no reason for them to suddenly develop alter egos that served Team Plasma…unless Team Plasma had experimented on them at some point. They had all heard rumors of Team Plasma developing some sort of engineered super-Pokémon from a fossil. They had also seen the marvel that was Team Plasma's castle (before it was torn down, that is). So, for a group with so many technological accomplishments, human manipulation wasn't such a stretch, right?

So Chili hunted for any strange scars on his body. He ran metal detectors over everyone's heads to detect any mind-control chips or similar nefarious technology. They even traded for a Hypno, and had it use Hypnosis on each of them to see if they had any hidden memories. While it was funny seeing Cress flit about like a ballerina, and Cilan acting like a military general (though Chili was severely embarrassed when he heard about his own attempted Superman escapades), no explanations surfaced. If Team Plasma had done something to them, they had done a good job of covering their tracks.

Even as the triplets searched for an answer, their headaches were growing more frequent. So were reports of Shadow Triad activity.

**IIIIII**

It was in the middle of the night, and Chili knew he must be asleep or half-delirious if he was seeing another Chili in the bedroom with him. Considering his nauseating and skull-cracking migraine, Chili suspected it was the latter.

This Chili was standing near his dresser on the other side of the room, watching him like a hungry Liepard. He wore the black outfit of Shadow Triad, but with his bright red hair free and his face mask pulled down. His black eyes regarded the other redhead with vile amusement.

"Hey there, mongrel," Shadow Chili said with a sneer. "How is life lying down like the pathetic dog you are?"

Defiantly, Chili sat up, though he had to grip his forehead when more pain exploded inside his brain. "Screw you," he spat.

Shadow Chili laughed, a sound far too loud for Chili's throbbing head. He shut his eyes tight, willing the grating sound to end. Shadow Chili's laughter finally dissolved into chuckles. "You are a bold one for a cur."

"I'm…not a cur…" Chili growled back, as a brief dizzy spell swept over him. He might pass out if he wasn't careful…if he wasn't out cold already. His glaring red eyes locked with Shadow Chili's malignant black ones. "You…why do you exist…?"

"Why do _you_ exist?" asked Shadow Chili with a grin. "Because of your mom."

Chili groaned in frustration as well as pain. He walked right into that one. "I mean…when did you start existing?"

The Shadow grew more serious. "We were born seven years ago."

_Seven years ago… _Chili thought. That was back in their Lentimas Town days. It had started that far back? What happened seven years ago…? It hurt just to think. "…Why?"

"No one remembers being born. Do you?"

"…No," Chili admitted. "Why…Why do you hurt others? Why do you hurt my brothers?"

Another bark of a laugh, which made Chili wince. "We only hurt others for the sake of our Lord Ghetsis. We are only playing with your brothers."

"You call…poisoning dinner…playing?" hissed Chili. The room was starting to sway again, but he remained steadily upright.

"It was just a little poison. Nothing that would kill or permanently injure," The Shadow replied coolly. "You brothers, you play with each other. We brothers, we just play rougher."

Chili's already-unbearable migraine abruptly doubled in intensity, and the world spun like a tornado. He was vaguely aware of falling back onto the bed, clutching his head.

Shadow Chili was looming over him with shining crimson eyes and a distorted face. "Because we are superior to you! We hate your useless kind! We will devour all of you!"

Chili might have screamed, but he wasn't sure. Everything quickly went black after that.

**IIIIII**

"…Does anyone remember what happened last night?" Chili asked tiredly, as he chopped some carrots in the kitchen the next morning. His head still throbbed dully. In his fatigue he missed the carrots and accidentally cut himself with the knife. "Ow! Dammit…"

His brothers, who had been casually chatting with him earlier, now said nothing. They continued their practice match out in the stadium area without even looking at Chili. The red-haired brother guessed they didn't have any memory of last night either, and didn't want to talk about it. He didn't blame them. There had been too many occasions like that lately.

…And the cameras didn't help either. One by one they had been destroyed. Occasionally the culprit - a black blur, a Shadow, or one of the Striaton brothers - was caught on camera moments before everything was reduced to static. On one tape Chili himself turned to glare at the camera, and it had instantly broken. Chili still wasn't sure how he had managed to do _that_. Still, after capturing some footage of Cilan ripping apart stacks of books with his hands and teeth, and Cress devouring raw meat off of meat hooks, it was almost a relief to lose the cameras.

Chili sighed, as he got a bandage for his finger. "You know, maybe we should…get help. I mean, maybe we could go to a doctor or psychiatrist or something, not giving too much detail of course…"

"You really think that will make things different?" asked Cress, recalling his fainted Panpour.

"I think we'll just get a murdered doctor," Cilan added, retrieving his victorious Pansage. "Once they find out too much, that is."

"…Yeah, you're probably right," Chili replied, his red eyes looking away from them for a few moments. "But we can't keep going on like this! Whatever this is, it's getting worse! If we don't do something, we'll be-"

"Devoured?" both Cress and Cilan interrupted, turning to Chili with cold smiles.

Chili felt his blood freeze. These weren't his brothers. These were-

"You really believe you are innocent?" said Shadow Cilan, as he and Shadow Cress advanced toward Chili.

_Shit…When did they turn Shadow_? Chili wondered in dread. Occasionally one of his brothers would be taken over during the day, but never had both his siblings been seized at once. _I was just talking to them a while ago…At least, I _thought_ I was talking to them…Shit…_

"You lost that innocence long ago," Shadow Cress added, as he and Shadow Cilan surrounded Chili. Shadow Cress whipped out a knife from his sleeve. Slowly but carefully he slid it across Chili's cheek, drawing blood. "You are just as filthy as the rest of us." He wiped the knife's edge on Chili's white dress shirt.

Chili glared at them, though he remained perfectly still. He didn't even lift a hand to wipe away the blood running down his face. "_You're _the ones doing everything! This is all because of _you_!"

Both of the Shadows laughed, circling around like Sharpedo. Chili suddenly felt his headache intensify.

"But we are a part of all of _you_," said Shadow Cilan. "We came from you. _We _would not exist if _you_ did not exist." He took out a fork and stabbed Chili's hand with a sharp strike.

Chili bit back a cry, watching as four red droplets seeped out of his skin.

"These are _our_ bodies too," Shadow Cress went on, as he sliced open one of Chili's sleeves with his knife. "And it is _these_ bodies that commit our acts. You have been bloodstained for a long time."

"But you're not us!" Chili exclaimed, even as his headache grew stronger. "And you'll _never_ be us!"

"Oh really?" asked Shadow Cilan. He raked his fork down Chili's exposed arm, causing Chili to hiss in pain. "But you are losing more of yourselves to us every day."

"Because you are _weak_!" added Shadow Cress, cutting Chili's side.

"And _wretched_!" exclaimed Shadow Cilan, his fork jabbing Chili's leg.

"And a _fool_!" shouted Shadow Cress, cutting into Chili's chest.

"Stop it!" demanded Chili. These were deliberately shallow wounds, nothing that would kill him, but they were still painful. His outfit was ragged and blemished with blood.

"Why?" asked Shadow Cilan almost innocently, almost like the green-haired brother he knew. "It's so much fun to play with a lesser one like you!" He stabbed Chili's side in the same place Shadow Cress had slit into earlier.

"Yes, you are _such_ a fun plaything," said Shadow Cress, swiping another long cut onto Chili's forearm.

All at once, Chili's fear transformed into rage as he was incessantly lacerated by the Shadows. He just wanted them to stop laughing and tormenting him, and for his growing migraine to just _go away_ for once, just this once…

"- you coward-"

"-such a loser-"

"-lowlife-"

"-pushover, can't even-"

"_I said stop_!" Chili screamed, snatching the knife he had been using to cut carrots earlier and lunging at Shadow Cilan.

Shadow Cilan jumped back with an almost unnatural speed, avoiding the knife aimed for his gut. Shadow Cress also fell back, looking wary. Chili kept his knife pointed at Shadow Cilan. Finally it was quiet, and his head didn't hurt so much.

"My, my," said Shadow Cilan, smiling as he stood straight again. "That would have been quite lethal if it had hit. Good thing for both myself and your brother that I have good reflexes, huh?"

Chili froze, as those words began to sink in. He could have _killed_ with that strike. He could have killed _Cilan_ with that strike, not just Shadow Cilan. His shaking hands dropped the knife, which hit the floor with a loud _clang_.

"Indeed. That could have turned out _terribly_," agreed Shadow Cress, standing behind Chili. "Why, it's almost as if he's done such things before…"

"Well, they say the body has its own memory," added Shadow Cilan. "Even when the mind has none…"

Chili's whole body started trembling, as he stared at the knife on the floor. Where did he learn to stab like that? Why did he lash out immediately with an attack to _kill_, not just wound or disarm? For all the misery the Shadows were causing him, Chili knew he was never in any real danger. His wounds stung and bled some, but none were anywhere near life-threatening.

"Do you understand now?" asked Shadow Cress, now cutting Chili's other cheek with his knife. "Just because you don't remember doesn't mean you're innocent. You're no more innocent than the bullet in the gun. We just do the dirty work for you, while you continue your meek little lives, carrying on your happy façade."

"For we are the real ones," Shadow Cilan added. "We are the pent-up desires, the truths that you deny. _You_ are merely puppets, the faces we wear when we cannot be ourselves. And if we are caught, it will be _you_ who will take the blame. Never forget that."

Chili tried to speak, but he choked on the words. His gaze was still fixed on the knife on the floor. It reflected his own frightened red eyes back at him, and showed what a bloody disaster he was.

Shadow Cress sighed dramatically. "Well, we have a mission later this evening. Since it seems our brother will sleep through this one, prepare us dinner, will you? We are going to be simply _famished_ when we get back."

"Something with a lot of meat in it," added Shadow Cilan. "Oh, and clean yourself up too. Can't have you dripping blood all over our floor, after all. What would the customers think?"

Both Shadows left for their rooms to get dressed. Chili quietly began making dinner, listening to their footsteps.

**IIIIII**

The next morning, a bandaged-up Chili ran into his brothers talking in the hallway. He froze, and so did they.

They immediately searched him for more injuries, and found them. Chili stood stiffly the whole time. These _seemed_ to be his brothers, but maybe their Shadows were just looking for more weak points that were ripe for torture. He tried to keep the anxiety out of his face, but he wasn't sure if it was working.

The two siblings paused in their examination, exchanged silent looks, and then both hugged Chili at the same time. Chili nearly lost his balance from the unexpected embrace.

"W-W-We're sorry!" Cilan blubbered, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

Cress, for once, said nothing, but his grip was tight, and he looked dangerously close to crying himself.

Chili finally relaxed in their hold. Yeah, these were the brothers he knew. "I missed you guys…"

He felt two sharp pangs of pain in his back.

"We missed you too," said Shadow Cress with a vulpine smile, pulling away with knife in hand. "Now prepare us some breakfast, will you?" Both he and Shadow Cilan left laughing.

Chili stood in silence, his insides roiling with both fury and fear. He reached back to the new rips in his vest and came away with blood. He was having difficulty believing that he had just been stabbed by his brothers, even if their were possessed by their Shadow sides…of course then there was last night…

For the first time, he realized, he was truly alone. It was a horrible feeling. He stared at the blood on his hands numbly for a few moments more, before hurrying to find more bandages.

**IIIIII**

Another night, and with it, another migraine. Chili was about to close his eyes when something seemed to shift. He looked, and saw…

"You again," Chili growled, disregarding his pounding headache.

Shadow Chili bore a toothy grin, his dark eyes alight with mischief. "Yep, me again. What, not going to try to punch the daylights out of me like last time?"

Chili ignored him, as he picked up the Shadow Triad clothes strewn about his floor. Some of them were caked with dried blood. His Shadow could at least bother to clean up after himself. Some days Chili even woke up _wearing _his Shadow's outfit, occasionally with new wounds to go with it. His body was pockmarked with scars.

The Shadow didn't buy Chili's quiet act, and stalked him around the room. "What has got you so grim, my lower?"

"That I can't punch you in the face 'cause you're in my head," Chili muttered back. Last time he had forgotten about that, and ended up shattering his mirror. His hand was still bandaged up from that incident.

Shadow Chili laughed. "Yeah, what a shame. I wish I could punch you in the face too."

"Whaddaya know? Something we can agree on."

The Shadow laughed again. "At least you're fun to talk to."

Chili found one of Cilan's green bowties in one of his socks. "Why do you guys do this crap?" he asked, holding the green bowtie up for Shadow Chili to see.

"Why else? 'Cause it's fun," Shadow Chili replied with a grin. "Though it was a lot more fun when you guys thought it was each other doing it."

Chili sighed as he carelessly tossed the bowtie on top of his dresser. Well, he supposed it wasn't nearly as bad as the _other_ things the Shadows did. "Why do you hurt other people and Pokémon?"

"Because it is what Lord Ghetsis wants," Shadow Chili answered matter-of-factly. "I've told you this before."

"Ghetsis's an evil bastard," Chili spat back. "Everyone knows-" The pain in Chili's head suddenly increased twofold, and it took all his control not to cry out.

"You know nothing about our Lord Ghetsis," snarled the Shadow. "Do not say such things again."

The agony in Chili's head was mounting, and he felt like he was going to black out. "Why…Why are you guys so loyal to Ghetsis anyway…?"

Shadow Chili's face grew calmer, and the pain in Chili's mind eased. "He saved our lives."

"Saved you?" asked Chili. That didn't sound like the Ghetsis he had heard about. Admittedly, he had never met the head of Team Plasma in person…well, not while _he_ was in control anyway…He would have remembered a pale-skinned, green-haired man with a red eyepiece and a purple-and-gold robe if he had seen him…

"Yes," Shadow Chili answered, and he seemed to become lost in thought. "We had lost our mother. We had lost our home. We were hurt. We were so, so hungry…when _he_ came…"

Chili felt chills as he listened. He remembered those times - their mother had finally succumbed to her illness, and they ended up in the streets. Though really it wasn't that different from before, as it had been some time since their mother had been well enough to take care of them. She could only give her wise advice to them as they tended to her. And they never had enough food…But when did they get hurt…?

"He took us in and took care of us, when all others shunned us," the Shadow continued, looking almost wistful. "He made us better, and then he made us stronger. Even now he takes care of us, so we will always serve him faithfully. We will never be alone or hungry again." His dark eyes glanced to Chili's red ones. "That is the duty of the Shadow Triad."

Chili's mind whirled. When had this all happened? He tried to remember, but it only made his head hurt more. "Why did he save you…us?"

"He found us, and he couldn't leave us behind. It is as simple as that," said the Shadow. "He has helped many others too. He knows that by helping others, others will help him. That is how Team Plasma became so strong."

"So you believe in the whole Pokémon liberation thing?" asked Chili. "Or are you just doing whatever Ghetsis tells you to do?"

"I believe many people are unworthy of owning Pokémon," Shadow Chili replied. "But my thoughts don't matter. They just happen to agree with Lord Ghetsis."

"…You know he just wants to rule over the world, right?" Chili asked. He braced himself for another explosion of pain in his head.

"Yes," answered the Shadow, still just as calm as before. "And I believe he will make a great ruler. Better than that silly N, though he is a good person."

Chili wasn't sure what to say to that.

Shadow Chili's expression grew unreadable. "You…will never know the kindness that Lord Ghetsis gives us. That is sad, really. You and your brothers seemed starved of such benevolence."

Chili began to retort, but suddenly the Shadow was gone. Chili's headache was still there though, so he knew this was only a temporary retreat. He continued to clean his room, trying to pay no attention to his rising trepidation.

**IIIIII**

Cress once joked that if there were seventeen siblings, then they could have a specialist in every Pokémon type. In truth that would have been far too many mouths to feed. But they would have preferred that burden to the blight of the Shadows.

The Striaton Trio could no longer be comfortable with each other, because they never knew whether they faced their brothers or their Shadows. There was always that awkward pause when someone figured out that one or more siblings had turned Shadow, that they had been outfoxed again. Then they had to pretend that everything was normal, while keeping an eye on the possessed ones among them. It wasn't too bad when only one was Shadow, because the remaining two brothers could back each other up, but when two were taken over…

Chili could tell when his Shadow had been abusive when Cilan shied away from him, or when Cress glared at him warily. Chili knew it was his Shadow's doing, but he still felt incredibly guilty. Their cuts and bruises were explained away to others as being from Pokémon or various cooking mishaps. Still, it was bad enough that they started wearing protective clothing under their regular outfits.

They started seeing things, too, things aside from their Shadows. Chili saw the walls melting. Cilan saw thousands of Spinarak flooding the floor and crawling over everything. Cress saw blood dripping from the ceiling. These morbid visions would come and go, and they _knew_ they weren't real, but they sure _seemed_ real when they were happening.

Sometimes they dared to joke about it, even when one or more of them were trapped in their dark delusions. They would spin yarns about global warming when Chili saw the walls melting. They pretended to stomp on Cilan's non-existent Spinarak. They all held umbrellas over their heads when Cress spoke about blood rain. But their laughter was always hollow.

The migraines never stopped. Their heads hurt so badly, they could hardly sleep. When they did sleep, they rarely woke feeling rested, probably because their Shadows had taken over while they were unconscious. They hadn't been eating much, either because their headaches made them queasy, or some added poison to the meal did. Nowadays each brother fixed their own dinner, but it wasn't nearly as good as their combined efforts had been.

They heard each other screaming in their rooms, especially at night. Some of these screams had no words at all, just mindless yells of pain and frustration and rage. But all too often, those screams _did_ have words, words aimed at their Shadows. And Chili, with the middle room, heard cries from both his brothers.

_("Why do you do this to me and my brothers?" he heard Cilan screech. "We're good people! We want to be good people! You're ruining everything we've worked for!…Stop laughing, dammit! I said _stop laughing_!" Something crashed loudly.)_

_("_Shut up_!" he heard Cress shriek. "This is all because of you! Laugh all you want! I don't even care if you're out hurting others, but _leave my brothers alone_! I-" A sharp cry of pain. "I…I won't…I won't let…" Cress's voice faded.)_

And while these screams resounded from the walls around him, and as said walls seemed to be dissolving before his eyes, Chili would further burrow under his covers and bury his head beneath his pillow. For he knew there was nothing he could do to quiet the voices in their heads, or erase the visions or words of the Shadows. The resulting black eyes and other injuries from previous attempts had been proof enough of that. Now they all locked themselves into their rooms, trying to protect each other from themselves.

Chili hated what a disaster his life had become, but seeing and hearing his brothers' agony was far more painful. Back when they were kids, all he had to do was steal or catch some food to silence his siblings' hungry cries and make them happy again. Now he couldn't even protect them, couldn't save them from their unending torments…This was far worse than an empty stomach. Chili would have never thought anything could be worse than an empty stomach.

Why did they _all_ have to be deteriorating like this? Why couldn't it just be him, while his brothers stayed sane and ultimately moved on without him? He knew it would have been heartbreaking for them, and they would have tried their best to rescue him, but at least they would have had a future. At this rate…

Then there was that small, selfish part of him that was almost grateful that they were drowning in insanity at the same time. Together they had risen, and together they were sinking. He took a sick sort of comfort in knowing he wasn't alone in his mania. There wasn't anything worse than being alone. Most people who lost their minds ended up with no one, but he had Cilan and Cress. Three brothers with the same genetic spiral were now being sucked down the same darker spiral…it must have been their DNA which doomed them from the start. Perhaps it was from their father's side. It didn't matter. They were born that way. They never had a choice.

Damned genetics.

**IIIIII**

"Hey, you getting up or what?"

Chili cracked one red eye open, and saw Shadow Chili standing nearby. He closed his eye again. "Don't need to. Today's a holiday, and I'm tired." He soon got up anyway.

The Shadow quietly followed Chili around as he got dressed. He didn't wear his usual smirk or sneer as Chili hunted for things in his unusually messy room. He hadn't gotten around to cleaning it for weeks, maybe months.

"…What?" Chili finally asked, as he absently munched on some fast food left over from last night. The burger was insipid.

"I've told you a lot about myself," said Shadow Chili, sitting down on the floor. "Now tell me about you."

The request surprised Chili, and made him suspicious. Sometimes he and his brothers had normal conversations with their Shadows, but usually…"Why do you care all of the sudden? And don't you know most of it anyway?"

"Oh, I've heard plenty from other people," said Shadow Chili dismissively. "My brothers just won't shut up sometimes. And there's some stuff I kinda-sorta but don't really remember. I want to hear it straight from the source. So talk."

Chili shrugged. Why not? He didn't have anything better to do today. He plopped back into bed. "Not much to say about it. We were born in Lentimas Town, a poor little dusty place next to Reversal Mountain. Dad had a fling with Mom, and then bailed when he found out Mom had triplets on the way. Mom didn't get along that well with the rest of her family either, so she had to raise the three of us by herself."

"I thought you said this wouldn't take long," commented Shadow Chili, leaning back against the wall.

"You want to know or not?" asked Chili with some annoyance.

"Fine," the Shadow grumbled. "Go on."

Chili sighed and then continued. "Now, since Lentimas Town is mostly desert and located next to an active volcano, there's not a lot to eat there, much less a decent job market. We were grateful for every scrap we got, learned to savor it. Mom taught us what spices to use to make old rotten food taste good, that kind of thing. To this day, Mom's the best cook we've ever known." Chili smiled a little at the thought. His stomach rumbled, reminding him how famished he was. Fast food didn't count as nourishment. He couldn't remember the last big meal he had…

"She's dead, isn't she?" Shadow Chili asked.

Chili's small grin faded. "Mom had something wrong with her. Not even _she_ knew what it was, because she refused to go to a doctor. Said they were nothing but useless cheats who took your money. Kind of like Dad, really, and most other people. You can only rely on yourself, she always used to say."

The Shadow stayed quiet, apparently content with letting Chili talk.

"After a while she couldn't take care of us, and we had to take care of her instead," Chili went on, gazing absently at the ceiling. "It…didn't take long, once that happened, but it was pretty horrible…If we weren't so young back then, maybe we could've done more…Even during those last days, she still didn't trust medical help…Said she knew she was dying and didn't need any doctor telling her that and charging her for it…"

"…I don't really remember mother," the Shadow admitted, red eyes looking to the cluttered floor. "I must have been too young…"

_So the Shadows were already forming back then_, thought Chili. Once again he wondered what triggered their creation. "Since Mom had no friends and had cut all ties to her family, we were supposed to be shipped off to the crowded orphanage outside town. We didn't want to go because we didn't know or trust them. So we ran off and started living on the streets. It was rough, and we were always hungry, but that was life. Sometimes it was even kind of fun."

"Better to be free than a slave," said Shadow Chili. "That's what we thought back then too."

Chili chuckled a little. "We thought we were so tough. Stealing whatever we needed. Running from our victims and the cops. Living like wild Pokémon. We even hunted some of the local wild Pokémon, though there wasn't much to choose from. Most things there, like Trapinch and Skarmory and Skorupi, were inedible no matter how you cooked them."

"Agreed," said the Shadow, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "Stupid useless Pokémon we can't even eat."

"Yeah…" Chili replied. "Audino tastes pretty good, kind of a cross between Bouffalant and Pidove. Pretty easy to catch too, since they're so friendly and trusting. Takes forever to kill one though, and there weren't too many of those around. Numel tastes horrible, like burnt Miltalk covered in mud. It was too much trouble to drive the things into water and drown them anyway. Woobat tastes pretty bad too, like a really chewy Sandile, and there's hardly any meat left by the time you pull away all the fluff around it. Besides, they'd usually detect you and fly off before you could nab one. Same problem with _any_ Psychic-type, really, since they're, well, psychic…though Spoink are delicious, if you can get them. If you can surprise it and take its psychic-boosting pearl, and hold it still enough so its heart stops beating and it passes out…You know, because it has to keeping bouncing to keep its heart beating…We didn't have a chance of getting a Grumpig though, 'cause they'd blast us away in a second. Same for any evolved stuff, really. But I bet Grumpig tastes awesome…"

"You're making me hungry," commented Shadow Chili.

"It's making _me_ hungry too," replied Chili with an almost sincere grin. How he wished he could just gorge on a big fancy meal right now…but he probably would just throw it back up. He sighed, wan smile still in place. "But you know, we figured out something after a while. Here we were, spending so much time and energy trying to catch these wild Pokémon, when people were passing through all the time with these docile, easy-to-steal, much more edible Pokémon. So we starting taking those Pokémon instead. Those were some of the most delicious Pokémon we had ever had. And we learned to cook all kinds of Pokémon in all different kinds of ways. So there was the start of our chef careers." Chili laughed.

"We had to be careful of when and how we stole Pokémon. Didn't want anyone catching on to what we were doing. Sometimes we'd lure the Pokémon away into a trap. Other times one of us would distract the Trainer while one of the others stole the Pokeballs, and anything else valuable they had. By the time the Trainer realized they've been robbed, all of us would be long gone!" Chili laughed again. "Those dumbasses! Seeing the looks on their faces…Well, we didn't always have that luxury, but when we did it was hilarious! It…It was…"

Chili gripped the covers tightly, as his smile became strained, as tears pricked the corners of his eyes. "It was horrible. Arceus, we were horrible. But we had to eat! But…But…" His voice cracked as his chest heaved in a sob. The tears slipped down his face like rain down a window.

The Shadow watched Chili's breakdown with a melancholy fascination, saying nothing.

"I-I don't want to be like this!" Chili choked out. "I want to be a good person! I want to help people, and make them happy, to make up for what we had to do back then! I…I thought we were finally moving forward, becoming people that could be liked, loved even…But…Arceus, oh Arceus, no wonder you Shadows exist…No wonder at all…" He laughed vacantly, the tears still streaming down, his hands still clutching the sheets like he was afraid he would be suddenly be snatched away.

"…You say that like you're the only one who's starved before, the only one that was ever hungry," said the Shadow quietly. "Many fight to survive every day, fighting for that last piece of meat. You and your brothers are not alone."

"…Yeah," Chili croaked. "That makes us all the more horrible for what we did, huh? Everybody needs to eat. But there are lots of different ways to earn your food. We…We didn't have to…"

Shadow Chili stayed silent, as Chili's tears finally slowed. There was a long quiet.

"…Hey, Shadow?" Chili finally asked, his eyes empty of both tears and spirit.

"Yeah?" asked Shadow Chili.

"If…If we had helped people, if we had trusted people back then…" Chili began, his voice hushed. "If we had made friends back then, would things have been different?"

"We have Lord Ghetsis," said the Shadow.

"Does he count as a friend?"

"…I don't know."

There was more silence.

"Screw it. I'll just sleep in some more," mumbled Chili, as he buried himself under the covers. "Shadow, if you take over…Well, I know it's stupid to ask since it's your nature, but don't hurt anyone unless you have to. Go ahead and laugh. I don't even care."

Shadow Chili didn't laugh, or even smile, as he stood back up again. But Chili did feel the usual sudden spike in his ever-present migraine that preceded a personality switch. He almost welcomed the incoming rush of darkness.

**IIIIII**

Chili was thoughtlessly sweeping the floor in the kitchen when he heard the crash, followed by Cilan's alarmed cries. Chili rushed into the back room, and saw Cress lying pale and dazed in Cilan's arms. Broken plates and spilled food were strewn around them like a splintered halo. Somewhat crossly Cilan (or was it Shadow Cilan? It was getting harder to tell them apart, with Cilan's worsening temper) asked Chili to discreetly get Cress back to his room. The restaurant was still full of customers, and they still had to keep up appearances that everything was fine.

But nothing was fine. It hadn't been fine for a long time. Part of Chili said:

_ThankArceusTheyDon'tKnowWeWouldDieAndTheyWouldHate UsIfTheyKnewThank- _

While another part said:

_OhArceusPleaseHowCanTheyNotNoticeUsOhPleaseNoticeU sPleaseHelpUsPlease-_

Chili aided Cress back to his room, his blue-haired brother leaning against him and murmuring apologies as he arduously treaded along. He thought Cress's hair lacked its normal shine, and that his outfit was a bit wrinkled. Cress must have been exhausted if he hadn't fretted with those details as he usually did. Chili almost thought he was going to crumple down next to his sibling himself, but he managed to keep his pace up long enough to reach Cress's room.

Cress gratefully fell into his bed, not even bothering to pull the tangled sheets over himself. Chili did it for him, and quietly noted how untidy his brother's room was. Many discarded and broken things were scattered about the floor, almost entirely hiding the soft carpet. All the mirrors were shattered, with the glass fragments still strewn about on the dressers, on the floor, in the bathroom sink. Cress's silver-and-blue hairbrush (_oh wheeeeere is my hairbrush? _Chili thought half-giddily) was lying near a turned-over trash can.

"You just rest up, okay?" Chili said, as he picked up the hairbrush and set it on a slightly-cleaner dresser. "Me and Cilan will fix you something later…or we can order something instead, if you like."

"Can't you…stay for a while?" Cress asked quietly, curling up under the covers and turning toward Chili.

"I can't stay too long," Chili answered, kicking some rubbish aside. "Gotta get back to work and help Cilan out. We've got a lot of customers, you know."

"I know," Cress replied, his blue eyes drooping heavily. "It's just…My head hurts…really badly…"

Chili knew what Cress was really saying. Cress would probably turn Shadow soon, or else be tormented by his Shadow (although, the Shadows had been oddly mild lately…for Shadows, anyway). But Chili remembered that Cilan had looked awfully pale, as if he was barely able to keep going himself. He might collapse next if Chili didn't hurry back. "I know Cress, but I won't be gone long. Shift's almost up. I'll come back then, okay?"

Chili turned to leave again, only to feel a tug. He glanced back to see Cress clinging to the edge of his sleeve, his blue eyes guiltly averted. It reminded Chili of when Cilan would do that when they were kids, whenever he was scared or insecure. But that was Cilan. Cress _never_ did that.

"Don't go…" Cress murmured, gripping Chili's sleeve tighter. "I…I don't want to be by myself. The ceiling's bleeding again…and I've had such horrid nightmares of monsters and fire and blood and others dying terribly…of you and Cilan…" He pulled the covers over his head with his free hand. "I just want to be a good person…I don't want…I apologize for my selfishness…I…I…" He buried his face in his pillow, but Chili still heard the weeping, still saw his sibling's shoulders trembling underneath the covers.

Chili didn't know what to do. Even when they were kids out in the street, even when he was hurt or scared, Cress never cried, _ever_. He was far too proud to show such weakness, until this moment.

In the end Chili sat down on the bed next to Cress, saying nothing. He didn't want to further degrade Cress with pitying words. Instead Chili silently stared at the filthy floor and pondered it all: haughty Cress was drowning in sorrow and self-loathing, mild Cilan had developed a poisonous temper, while he himself had become just…ashes. Was this who they really were, behind all the appearances and secrets and lies?

Eventually Cress fell asleep, and Chili slipped away. He couldn't afford to be weak now. He had to protect his brothers. He _had_ to.

**IIIIII**

Chili didn't remember blacking out. He remembered waking up feeling drained, his body aching with every little movement, his stomach not even keeping water down, his brothers' worried gazes and words, feeling hot, then very cold, then _very_ hot as the room suddenly sharply tilted to the left…

The next thing Chili remembered was being sprawled out across the floor, with an anxious Cilan and Cress bent over him. One of his siblings had a cooling hand on his forehead, but he wasn't sure which one. Chili rasped out their names, and wasn't able to do much more than that. His head _hurt_. It was so hot. It was so hard to stay awake…

He must have fallen asleep again, for the next thing Chili knew he was in his bed, shuddering under the covers. Cilan and Cress took turns checking on him and staying with him. They talked and joked about the stupidest things ("Did you hear that Elesa dyed her hair again?"), mostly to avoid the more obvious, serious subjects. Even now they donned their masks. Cilan was with him more than Cress, and seemed to be trying to keep an eye on the still-recovering Cress too.

_How did Cilan outlast both of us?_ Chili couldn't help but wonder. Cilan was the baby among the brothers, the one they always had to look after. Now he was looking after both of them.

Chili spent most of the next few days in bed, dozing on and off. Sometimes he wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep. His fever dreams seemed more vivid than reality…and, despite their insanity, they were often more pleasant too.

Chili woke up in the middle of the third night of his sickness. At least, he _thought_ he woke up. He wasn't so sure when he saw everything melting and blurring like wet paint, and noticed the tendrils of fire and darkness swirling above his head. The heat was suffocating (he never really was a Fire-type person) as the tongues of fire and darkness drew closer and licked at his sweat-soaked skin. Red and black, red and black, circling and circling…(He was _never_ a Fire-type person…)

_I'm being devoured_…he thought wildly, as the fire and the darkness spun closer and closer, as he struggled for air in the rising inferno. The melting room was getting sucked into the tornado too, the sick medley of color quickly becoming smeared into the color of blood. The high-pitched winds turned into the despairing cries of dying Pokémon and grieving Trainers, as countless angry faces took shape in the fire and darkness and burning blood. This was it, the vengeful ghosts had found him, and he was-

Suddenly Shadow Chili was there, sitting on the bed with his back turned toward Chili. The fire and darkness and spirits didn't seem to bother him. The Shadow didn't even seem to notice them.

Chili tried to speak, but his throat felt so dry and cracked that all that came out was a coughing spasm.

The Shadow turned his head at the sickly sound. He silently reached over, and carefully brushed some stray hairs out of Chili's face.

Chili was taken aback by his Shadow's gentle, almost caring behavior. His expression, was it…sad? Chili didn't have much time to think about it, for he soon sank back into slumber, despite the rising flames and blackness and ghosts…

He woke up (maybe) once more, this time to a lush forest. He felt a little better now, though he still preferred to stay in his bed (which was somehow in the forest with him). Chili soon recognized the forest as the one that used to be near Lentimas Town. He and his brothers used to play there all the time when they were very little, back when their mother wasn't only alive but healthy and happy too. But didn't it get burned down by arsonists…? Three Pokémon were playing nearby, but just which Pokémon they were changed from moment to moment.

Shadow Chili was still sitting next to him, his back still turned. He was watching the three ever-changing Pokémon chase each other around, and only noticed Chili when said Pokémon zipped over top of him and his bed. Shadow-Chili's red-eyed gaze lingered on Chili, as if surprised to find him there, before turning away again. "What do you want to see?" he eventually asked.

Chili watched one of the Pokémon go from a Zebstrika to a Sandile to a Miccino. "I dunno…Food?"

Shadow Chili chuckled. In an instant the forest vanished and was replaced by mountains upon mountains of edibles: cupcakes, donuts, candy, apples, berries, cookies, cakes, Sawsbuck steaks, Mareep mutton, Crawdaunt tail. Some of the food was regular-sized, while others, like the three chocolate Pansear next to Chili's bed, were just as big as he was.

Chili gaped at all of it, not expecting his wish to be so immediately and lavishly granted. He could smell every bit of it, and the aromas were mouthwatering. He sampled some icing from one of the chocolate Pansear, and it was amazingly sweet. Chili leaned back and laughed at the absurdity of it all.

"Happy now?" asked Shadow Chili, glancing back.

Chili sighed, still smiling. "Thanks, but…"All this food, yet he hardly craved a bite of it. "…I don't think this is what I really want."

"What do you want then?"

Chili paused, thinking about it. "I want…I want to go back. I want me and my brothers to have lots of friends and to be happy, and to make others happy. Can you do that?"

The Shadow turned back around, and the scenery transformed again. Now they were back in Lentimas Town, on a school playground. The equipment was rusty and faded, but the kids didn't care. They were happily running about shouting, laughing, and playing on the decrepit relics.

And there were the Striaton Triplets, playing along with them. There was little Cilan, helping some kids hunt for four-leaf clovers. There was little Cress, pushing a kid on a swing. There was Chili's own little self, spinning the metal merry-go-round, while the kids aboard shrieked with joy.

Chili quietly watched his alternate self and his brothers frolic with the other children. Even though they romped with separate people, Chili could tell that they were still devoted to each other and would reunite at the end of recess. He understood this now, but back then they were always afraid of losing each other and stuck close together…maybe too close? Or maybe not close enough…if they had more faith in each other, much less other people…

"Is this what you want?"

Chili startled. He had forgotten Shadow Chili was there with him, standing behind him. Chili smiled and nodded. "Yeah…"

The Shadow watched Chili for a while, before turning to the gleeful children. "Tell me everything you want. I'll do it."

"…Everything?" Chili asked.

"Everything."

Chili chuckled a little. "Well, we're gonna be here for a while, then…"

They discussed all sorts of things: places Chili wanted to see, people Chili wanted to meet, Pokémon he wanted to train or at least own, dishes he wanted to cook or try. He wanted to see the restaurant flourish. He wanted to be a great Trainer. He wanted to help Lentimas Town, to help any place struggling with food and poverty. He wanted himself and his brothers to go down in history not just as world-renowned cooks, but as world-renowned philanthropists, who left the world a much better place than they found it. And Shadow Chili generated scenario after scenario, each one further perfected by additional conversation. And over and over his Shadow would ask _Is this what you want? Is this what you want? Is this what you…_

Eventually Chili ran out of dreams, and felt sleep tugging him down once more. "Why…do you care so much, Shadow?" He felt himself slip into slumber even as the other answered…

"Because, brother, we are the same."

**IIIIII**

Chili woke up feeling more refreshed than he had felt for weeks, maybe months. He still felt a little feverish and tired, and of course there was the usual headache, but otherwise he felt pretty good. He felt so good he helped out with the cooking for the event at the Pokémon Trainer's School. The kids were all overjoyed by the cookies and cupcakes the Striaton Trio had prepared for them for completing their classes, and the adults were delighted by the feast of meat and fruit that awaited them in the evening.

Chili was fatigued but merry by the time everyone had left. He and his brothers were, as usual, cleaning up the mess left behind by their customers' satisfying meal. It was just past nine at night, and in this sleepy little city that meant most people were in bed already. It gave Chili chills just hearing the rampant rain rapidly drumming on the roof of the schoolhouse - he didn't look forward to going out in _that_ later. He wasn't sure if he was ravenous or nauseous from the leftover aromas. He rubbed his forehead in a futile attempt to quell his ever-present migraine, and felt long lines of thin scabs. Scratches?

"We need to close the restaurant," said Cilan, his face grim.

This sudden declaration shocked both Chili and Cress, who both stopped their sweeping.

"What are you talking about, Cilan?" Chili demanded. "We can't close the restaurant! That's our life! That's our _dream_!"

"I must side with Chili on this," added Cress. "The restaurant is our legacy. We cannot simply throw that away."

"Look, this isn't…a permanent closing," Cilan explained, rubbing his forehead in aggravation. "But due to…circumstances we all well know, we're all stressed and exhausted. Both of you have collapsed within the past couple weeks. You're _still_ sick, Chili. We can't handle running both a Gym and a restaurant right now."

"Then why not close the Gym instead?" asked Chili. "I'm sure it'll be easy enough for the League to find a replacement for us. The other Gym Leaders just look down on us anyway, since we failed to show up _that one time_ at N's castle…"

"Because the Gym is what's making us the most income," replied Cilan, folding his arms. "And the restaurant's reputation had suffered due to us being distracted and tired, so its income had suffered as well."

"But if we could just focus on the restaurant-" Chili began.

"Look! I'm doing this for all of us!" Cilan snapped. "Running a Gym is a lot easier and profitable than running a restaurant, so it should be a lot less taxing on everybody! If we can get a better handle on things later, then we can reopen the restaurant! But it's too much right now!"

"Hey, what's with all this _I_ stuff?" Chili growled. "We're _all_ in charge of both the Gym and the restaurant!"

"Chili is right," said Cress. "It is two against one. You have been outvoted, Cilan."

"I don't _care_!" Cilan yelled. "I'm…I'm sick of seeing both of you breaking yourselves, for my sake or other people's! I'm sick of always being coddled as I see both of you bleeding out! Chili, you have no idea how sick you were, do you? For a while I thought it was going to be Mom all over again…And Cress, I know you haven't even been _trying_ to eat lately!"

Both Chili and Cress looked away, saying nothing.

"You clearly can't tend to yourselves, so I'm going to have to look after of both of you instead!" He calmed down, glancing to the side. "My Shadow…has always called me weak and pathetic…and so far, he's been right…But I'm going to get stronger and prove him wrong!"

Chili was stunned. Cilan's emerging temper didn't stem from bitterness: it was defiance. He had no idea that Cilan was so…_strong_. When had that happened? Or perhaps it had always been that way, and he and Cress had never noticed…? _We've become different without even realizing it…_

"Chili, are you listening to me?" Cilan asked somewhat irritably. "We have to study hard and become full-fledged Gym Leaders as soon as possible…"

Chili may have had newfound respect for his green-haired brother, but he wasn't about to be submissive to him. "About that. If we had gone to N's Castle a year ago, the Seven Sages and the Shadow Triad wouldn't have escaped!" _Well, the Shadow Triad would've, for obvious reasons, but maybe…_ "Then nobody would say something like _Three of you together make_…"

"I guess you're right," Cress said, eyes still averted.

"You think so?" Cilan asked, turning to Cress. "But it isn't that big of a deal. We may not have made it in time, but Team Plasma is still gone."

_But maybe we could have gotten some answers about our Shadow sides! _"Argh! It's because you say things like that. That's why people treat us like a joke!" Chili snapped back. "Like it takes all three of us to make one great Trainer!" _Like it takes all three of us just to make it from day to day…_

"You're overthinking it," answered Cress, before he frowned. "But I can't say the possibility is zero."

"Come on you two…" Cilan replied with some annoyance. "Don't you think it's a bit strange to get recognition and respect as Gym Leaders just for beating bad guys?"

_No_, thought Chili. "I understand what you're saying." _But not really. Why am I even lying at this point? _"But if things go on like this, nothing will ever change." _We'll just keep destroying everything, including each other. _"Even if we train, the other Gym Leaders will become that much stronger as well." _And the Shadows will get stronger too. The Shadows will-_

Chili froze. His Shadow was _right there_, on the other side of the classroom. He was fully dressed in his black clothes and long white wig, with his balaclava pulled up over his mouth. Blue eyes gazed…Wait, blue eyes? This wasn't-

"Then…We'll battle you," said Shadow Cress. The other two Shadows materialized beside him, also donning their full Shadow Triad uniforms.

Cress whirled around in alarm. Cilan gave his brothers puzzled glances until he too spotted the Shadow. Hastily the triplets gathered closer together to defend themselves from this triple threat…and then gave each other shocked looks.

_We're…all seeing the same thing?_ wondered Chili. _But that makes no sense! We can't all be having the same delusion at the same time…can we?_

Cress stepped to the front. "Based on your appearance, you must be the Shadow Triad." He paused. "But why are you here?"

The Shadow Triad glanced at each other, as if unsure how to answer that question.

"We came on a whim…To vent…To pass time…" answered the one with bright red eyes, Shadow Chili. "…It doesn't matter…"

Chili still stared at the Shadow Triad, at the guilty red eyes of his own Shadow (When did he and his Shadow's eyes become the same shade?). Despite being fully decked out in their Shadow Triad outfits, they somehow didn't seem as scary as before. Hope bubbled up - if they won, could they be free, or at least in more control? Chili barked out a laugh as he took out a Pokeball. "Three on three! The first one to beat them is the strongest among us!"

Cilan and Cress gazed over to Chili, smiled, and took out their own Pokeballs. They all turned to face the Shadow Triad, perfectly in sync.

Then, in that one moment, they saw the truth.

_IIIIII_

_Heh, cliffhanger XP. So what did you guys think of this chapter? Was it scary, or at least chilling? Does the past that I gave the triplets make sense? What do you think of the Shadows? Do I ask too many questions? XD_

_Well, two more questions for you: What do you think is going on here? And what are your predictions about the next chapter?_

_Cya!_


	3. A Toast to the Broken Wishbone

_Hi again! Welcome to the final chapter! It's more of an epilogue than anything, since it's much shorter than the other two. Finally everything will be explained XP. _

"_One life stamps and influences another, which in turn stamps and influences another, on and on until the soul of human experience breathes on in generations we'll never even meet." -Mary Kay Blakely_

_**Chapter 3: A Toast to the Broken Wishbone**_

"…So they kicked our butts, and then they just freaking _left_! _Poof_! Gone! That was it!" Chili ranted on, the girl who stood there being enraptured by his tale and elaborate motions that went along with it. "Apparently we weren't even worth stealing from or anything! Argh! It still gets me all fired up just thinking about it!"

"So, then you guys retired as Gym Leaders?" asked the girl, looking a bit sad. She sat down at the only vacant table.

The redhead calmed down, his expression more serious. "Yeah. It was too much really, trying to run both the restaurant and the Gym simultaneously, at least right now. This is our real passion, so we stuck with the restaurant. But we all need to get stronger…the unobtainable Trio Badge…" He suddenly perked up, pumping his fist into the air. "No! One day we will make the Trio Badge shine again!"

Chili whipped out his notepad and began to jot down the girl's order. While he did so, he heard one of the TVs running in the background, apparently set on the popular gossip show _The National Gymquirer._

"Here is today's letter. From someone going by the name _Cafélover_! Thank yooou!" the lady announcer declared brightly, before reading the letter aloud. "_Recently, I saw Striaton Gym's three Gym Leaders, and they were all out of order! Like, Chili was Cilan, and Cilan was Cress_! Hmmm. Well, I'm not saying you're crazy, but...are you sure they weren't just standing in front of a mirror?"

Cress was passing by the TV and heard the letter too. "Honestly, _that's_ the best content they can acquire? It's a wonder this show stays on the air at all." He changed the channel, and then continued on his way to another batch of waiting customers.

The restaurant was packed today, but these days it almost always was. Business had been booming since they had entirely dedicated themselves to it. People loved the new battle shows: every two hours, a randomly selected Trainer would fight alongside a Striaton sibling of their choice against the other two in a double battle. If the Trainer and his chosen sibling won, they got both the usual battle money and a free meal.

The day flew by. Chili remembered when the day, or even just a night, would drag on forever…Now he was tidying up the kitchen, while his brothers were cleaning the dining area.

"It's…been awhile," Cilan commented quaintly, as he swept the floor. "Since we've heard from Lord Ghetsis, I mean."

"Perhaps we should go check on him again?" suggested Cress, dumping some silverware into the sink. "He is often unwell these days, after all."

"He's _always_ sick these days," Chili amended, wiping off a spoon before tossing it into the sink. "But he doesn't like it when we drop in all of a sudden. He definitely wasn't happy about it last time."

"But what if something has happened to him? What if he's too ill to call us?" Cress countered, pointing a knife at Chili before putting it into the sink the rest of the dishes.

"You're overreacting, brother," said Cilan, waving a fork at Cress before wrapping it up with the other silverware in a cloth napkin. "He had both his Pokémon and his technology with him. He…should be alright…"

There was an uncomfortable silence between the three brothers.

"So…dinner?" asked Cilan quietly, breaking the imposing quietness. "What should we have, I mean?"

Before Chili could voice his opinion, he heard something scurrying. He glanced over and saw a big purple rat Pokémon dashing across the floor.. A Rattata! How did _that_ get in here? Chili swiftly slammed it against the wall with an Extrasensory attack, instantly killing it.

His brothers soon came in to inspect his handiwork.

"That won't be enough for us to eat," Cress said flatly.

"Ah, I hope that bloodstain won't be too hard to get out," said Cilan. "What would the customers think?"

"At least it didn't leave a dent or anything," remarked Chili, picking up the dead Rattata and tossing it to Cilan. "Should make a good appetizer anyway. Anything tastes good with the right spices, and it'd be a shame to waste fresh meat. Have fun."

"And where are you wandering off to?" asked Cress, as Chili sauntered away from them.

"To the woods," Chili replied, not looking back at either of them. "I need some fresh air."

"Don't spoil your appetite for dinner," said Cress in a mock-lecturing manner.

The redhead waved back offhandedly. "Don't worry. I'm always hungry."

Chili stepped out through the back door of the restaurant, and gazed up to the night sky. Not even the pearly moon could be seen tonight, and there was too much light pollution here for the stars to shine through. It was cold tonight, too, but that was fine. He leaned up against the restaurant, still gazing skyward.

_Target the Striaton Triplets,_ Lord Ghetsis had told them, all that time ago. _Observe them, study their speech patterns, their movements, every detail about them. Then don their appearances, pretend to be them, even on your missions. Excel, so that each of you can fool the other triplets, and make them think they've developed another personality. Use your powers further to make them think they're going insane, further weaken them, make them turn on each other. Then, my Shadow Triad, when the time is right-_

The Shadow knew the words by heart, even though the mission was long since completed. Now they were in the perfect position to spy on the other Gym Leaders and other important figures, just as Lord Ghetsis had planned. Even now they were gathering valuable information for him. And if they were ever caught, it only meant that it was time to hunt for new masks…But they would rather not have to do that again anytime soon…

_(The triplets cringed back in shock and terror, upon seeing for the first time their true forms…Yet, there were also looks of relief. For now the triplets knew it wasn't them, it was never them…)_

And…Lord Ghetsis was dying. They all knew it, as much as they tried to deny the subject. Endless periodical fights with that second Trainer would not change that. Lord Ghetsis, the one who had rescued them from the burning forest when they were mere weeks old, the one who they had served for almost all of their lives, was slipping away. And…

_(…But the reprieve soon evaporated, as their Pokémon were swiftly disposed of with a few quick slashes and bites. These baby Pokémon, bred or caught only for battling newly-minted Trainers, were nothing against highly trained ones like themselves…)_

The Shadow and his brothers had never liked humans, other than their Lord Ghetsis of course. They were the ones who hunted down and killed their mother, simply because they despised her kind. She gave her life protecting them. But they hadn't been old enough to pursue their own prey, so soon they became very hungry…and then more humans set fire to the forest they lived in, just because they had Fire-type Pokémon and they could.

_(The triplets' meager defenses stripped, now the true conclusion of the mission began. They bolted toward them like thrown lightning, claws and teeth poised to strike at vulnerable flesh…) _

So yes, they wholeheartedly supported the separation of Pokémon from people, so such horrid things never occurred again. So, when their Lord Ghetsis gave them this mission to torture some hapless humans, they gladly complied.

_(…It was supposed to be a quick, clean kill, just like all the others. A suffocating bite was all that was needed. It was harder to clean up a blood-spattered scene, though they could always disguise the scene until everything was fully taken care of…)_

They each had their own human to impersonate and torment. He chose the red-haired one because that human used Fire-types, and he _hated_ fire and Fire-types. Plus his general happiness and liveliness annoyed him beyond any sane nerves. He wanted to see how long it would take to break such an insipid creature.

_(…But then the blue-haired one pushed his brothers back, and took all the blows himself. In the process his neck was slashed, and red sprayed everywhere as he fell to the floor. His brothers raced to him, but by then he couldn't even speak, could only look up to them with sad, scared eyes that pleaded for them to run…) _

Oh, it was fun at first, seeing the redhead's confusion and annoyance at finding objects rearranged or misplaced (their powers made it easy enough to hide from any searching eyes). It was even better to see the shock and horror on his face, as he came to believe that lies were truth (their powers fooled cameras as well). Provoking the red-haired human with outrageous actions and venomous insults, then forcing the boy to fall to his knees with yet another carefully controlled Extrasensory attack to his brain…there had been something so satisfying in wielding such precise control over another. He had rarely been able to savor his prey - either he had been so famished that he devoured his victim immediately, or Lord Ghetsis wanted them to dispatch their targets as efficiently as possible.

_(…And the other two brothers were now enraged as well as terrified. They struck back with chairs and desks and forks and knives as they tried to drive them away. The damn humans were astonishingly resilient creatures, still standing even with all their lacerations. Cilan was the more aggressive one, guarding his weakened and feverish brother. But the Shadow's own brother was getting angry, and launched a full-powered Extrasensory at his chosen human. The green-haired brother let out an ungodly scream, and then fell to his knees, eyes blank, blood oozing from his ears and eyes…)_

But…perhaps there was a reason why prey should be quickly consumed. The more he had gotten to know the red-haired boy, the more he realized how similar the human and his brothers were to himself and his own siblings. The more they saw happy people and Pokémon together, the more they understood why some Pokémon deliberately chose to be with humans. The more people they saw in general, the less loathsome they seemed to be. The more they drove their own chosen humans into madness and misery, the less fun it became…until it wasn't fun at all. It became painful, in fact, especially as they started seeing things without the help of their powers, as their cries grew increasingly delirious and desperate. But these were Lord Ghetsis's orders…

_(…And Chili screamed too, as he rushed to his fallen siblings. The red-haired brother cried for them to get up, as a lone Dodrio head will call to its other heads even if both hung dead beside it. The Shadow took this opportunity to unleash an unrestrained Extrasensory attack himself, causing Chili to screech and hold his head and eventually slump over. But then Chili got up again, snarling, red eyes furious and wild yet strangely vacant, like a mad beast's…)_

_I don't want to be like this! _Chili had said. _I want to be a good person! _Chili had said, all of them had said. They all wanted to make up for their pasts, though theirs weren't even that bad. They all had wanted to do so many things, could have done so many things, if-

_(…Chili lashed out at him, thrashing and screaming and clawing and even biting off part of his ear in his frenzy. The Shadow eventually slammed him into a wall with another Extrasensory attack, and heard a sickening crack. Chili just laid there, befuddled, bleeding, still not dead, bleating out his brother's names over and over again helplessly…)_

The Shadow and his brothers always served their Lord Ghetsis before all others, including themselves. They served him even if they didn't completely agree with him, although that was rare, or at least it used to be. Even when he raved incoherently, even when he lashed out at them either verbally or physically, they still obediently served him. Even when Ghetsis wanted to hear all the bloody details of those final minutes, even when they didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to think about it, they complied and-

_(…and then Chili had no voice to cry out with, as the Shadow's fangs fastened down on his throat. But those eyes, those red eyes spoke of fear and despair and rage and yearning far better than any words could, even in their hazed lunacy, even as those red eyes dimmed and drooped, and the blood flooded the Shadow's mouth and the floor…It wasn't supposed to be like this, it wasn't supposed to be…)_

But Ghetsis was dying. Perhaps he was already dead and they didn't even know it yet. They served Ghetsis above all else but once he died…Could they be good?

The Shadow chuckled to himself. Chili's ideas were infecting him again, as they always did. What was the way that humans put it? _You are what you eat?_ But who devoured who, in the end?

He chortled darkly at the absurdity of it all, before his expression became somber again. They had to trick and devour - that was simply their nature. The problem with hunger was that it always came back. But he would not waste this life he had consumed. This life came with dreams and desires, its own hungers, and he would sate all of them. Once his service to Ghetsis's life was done, he would fully devote himself to serving this one. Yes, the Striaton Trio would be famous the world over!

Swallowed by others' dreams, the illusion he created slipped. For a moment, a dark fox Pokémon with a long red mane and ice-blue eyes stood there instead of a red-haired boy. Then, as quickly as it dropped, the illusion reformed, and the Zoroark decided to return to the restaurant instead of the lightless woods. There were far more important things to do than merely filling his own stomach.

_IIIIII_

_So what did you think? Didn't traumatize you guys too badly I hope. I love the Striaton Trio and yet my first story focusing on them ends up like this...I'm not even sure what to say._

_ Does everything make sense? What do you think of the Zoroark Shadow Triad?_

_Extrasensory is an Egg move, btw. Vulpix/Ninetales learns it, and there are wild Vulpix in Unova (at the Abundant Shrine), so I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch. _

_Thanks so much for everyone who has come this far and read the whole story! I hope you enjoyed it despite the morbid ending. I did warn you this was probably the evilest thing I've ever written..._

_Cya!_


End file.
